The special investigation team probing the parallel telephone exchange case has decided to seek the custody of a Thodupuzha native who was previously arrested in Hyderabad in connection with a similar case.
Crime Branch sources said the Thodupuzha native, Riyas, was suspected of maintaining close connections with Ibrahim Pullat, who was earlier arrested by the Karnataka police in connection with a major parallel telephone exchange case in Bengaluru.
Ibrahim Pullatt had been brought to Kozhikode to gather evidence in the case registered in Kozhikode city. Crime Branch officials hinted that he was involved in coordinating with investors in the business in other States.
The Crime Branch squad took up the case very seriously as there were preliminary investigation reports which confirmed the presence of extremist elements using the parallel telephone service for their communications.
On Wednesday, the Crime Branch squad conducted raids in the houses of three persons, who are at large, in connection with the case in the city. A number of travel documents and bank passbooks were recovered during the search conducted at the houses of Gafoor, Krishna and Shabeer.
It was on June 1 that the police busted the illegal telephone exchange in the city and seized a number of equipment used for operating the service. A special squad has been constituted to probe the case.
